


The Hounds of Winter

by honooko



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 02:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/315025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honooko/pseuds/honooko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aiba is pretty sure this is the greatest idea he's ever had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hounds of Winter

**Author's Note:**

> For nicocoer in the 2009 je_holiday exchange.

Aiba was pretty sure this was the greatest idea he’d ever had.

Winter was usually a difficult season for them all. Jun caught a cold around November every year, and because Jun didn’t stop for a fever or sniffles or swimming exhausted vision, it usually lasted around 3 weeks. Sho was busy covering elections the world over; his bag was stuffed to the seams with newspapers and he always answered his phone in a distracted way as he tried to read and talk at the same time. Aiba cut his smoking back a bit because his lungs were weak to the change in weather, and the resulting withdrawal made him tense and quiet. Ohno’s tan faded now that he couldn’t go fishing on the open ocean without freezing half to death; he doodled fish on the corners of every sheet of paper that found its way in front of him. Nino just plain hated the cold; his already-weak joints got stiffer and sore.

Each of them, for years, had come to depend on the others for happiness, even if all that meant was a smiling face: Sho needed Nino’s needed Ohno’s needed Aiba’s needed Jun’s needed Sho’s, round and round until they all found a way to smile in a perfect balance with each other.

Except in winter—in winter, their bodies got stiff with cold, their energy drained away as their bare feet hit the cold morning air, their smiles froze tightly on their faces. They tried to at least go drinking together once after the New Year, hoping the alcohol would melt away the ice at the corners of their mouths. But sometimes the winter lasted longer than others; sometimes a night of drinking and rowdy behavior in a karaoke booth wasn’t enough to shake off the layer of weighty snow across their shoulders.

It was the same year Nino visited his father’s family for the first time in twelve-odd years. That was probably the reason for it; Nino liked his family, _loved_ his family, but those people weren’t his family and he couldn’t bring himself to really care about people who didn’t remember his name.

“Grandmother called me ‘Kazuya,’” Nino told Sho in a text message. “She couldn’t even remember whose kid I was.”

“Nino’s grandmother is depressing him,” Sho told Ohno over the phone (after Ohno ignored the ringing for six straight rings.) “He’s sent me eight messages; he’s only been there two days.”

“Sho says Nino has an evil grandma,” Ohno mentioned to Aiba casually when his mother insisted they drop by Aiba’s family’s restaurant to greet them in the New Year.

“Did you know Nino is Cinderella? He has an wicked step-grandmother,” Aiba told Jun in an email. “No wonder he’s so cheap!”

“I’m joining a new band,” Jun replied. “One that isn’t crazy.”

But he’d used the cute little rainbow animated balloon border on the mail, so Aiba knew he didn’t really mean it. If he’d meant it, he would have used the little sparkle-skulls animated border.

 

“Aiba-kun?”

Bekki set a basket down on top of his head. Inside were various snacks, party crackers, and obscene amounts of foamy chiffon. Every year, Bekki gave them out to the ‘Tensai’ regulars. She had them custom-made; Shimura Ken’s always had little cookie Pan-kuns and a bottle of very nice, very expensive brandy. Aiba’s had ridiculous socks in them. The first year, it had been kangaroos; the second, rhinos. This year, it appeared to be hot-pink-and-yellow pandas, each with a knitted speech box that read MAD HOT PANDA KOOL!

“Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year,” she recited brightly as Aiba attempted to stuff all the chiffon back into the basket.

“Happy—stuff,” Aiba said back. “Hey, Bekki-chan?”

“Bekki-hime,” she corrected, examining a nail. The new nickname had been assigned after Aiba had “let slip” her phone number to Tegoshi-kun. Aiba had attempted to defend himself by pointing out that Tegoshi was generally agreed around the office to be ‘a catch,’ but Bekki reminded him that at the office, ‘a catch’ usually meant ‘extremely slutty.’ Akanishi had been ‘a catch’ since he was fifteen.

“Bekki-hime,” Aiba agreed, a bit meek. “Say you found out your best friend was Cinderella.”

“Are you drunk already?” Bekki asked. “It’s only 3pm.”

“ _Say_ ,” Aiba continued, “you found out he was miserable and lonely. What would you do?”

“I’d give him a Lesser Panda to hug,” Bekki said. “Obviously.”

 

“Knock knock,” Aiba said to Nino’s front door. Nino opened it, looking harassed. The expression turned slightly wary at the sight of Aiba; Aiba supposed he deserved that, considering the Birthday Incident of 2003.

“Yes?” Nino asked expectantly.

“Put on your shoes and coat,” Aiba said. “ _I have a plan._ ”

“Oh god,” Nino said. “Am I going to need bail money?”

“TO THE AIBATMOBILE!” Aiba declared, pointing to the driveway.

“Mom, Aiba’s kidnapping me,” Nino shouted over his shoulder as he pulled on his coat. “Watch the news, we’ll probably be on around eleven!”

 

The last thing Nino had expected when they pulled up to a small, brightly lit storefront was for Aiba to drag him out of the car, clumsily trying to cover Nino’s eyes and walk at the same time. It was clearly some sort of surprise, so Nino braced himself. Aiba steered him inside (he heard the bells on the door jingle) and told him to sit down on the floor.

“Keep your eyes closed,” Aiba reminded him. The room was strangely quiet, like the recording studios; soundproofed?

And then something landed in his lap.

“Surprise!” Aiba announced, and Nino opened his eyes to find a small, bumbling puppy in his lap. It looked like a shiba ken, like Haru was; his favorite. Aiba himself was holding another puppy; behind him, the storekeeper was carting in an entire basket of various breeds, all wobbling in that unsteady way that puppies have when one quarter of their entire body is their round, fluffy head.

Nino’s lapdog sneezed. Nino felt his heart melt.

“They’re not for keeps,” Aiba explained. “We’re all kind of busy for them. But we get to borrow them for today!”

Nino lifted his puppy up, smiling as the tiny dog nipped at his nose and made a squeaky kind of sound that was its very little growl.

“This is much better than prison,” Nino agreed.

 

They went to Jun’s next; Jun was going to be the hardest to win over, even with puppies. Especially with puppies, actually. It wasn’t that Jun didn’t like puppies, (“Who doesn’t like _puppies_?” Aiba asked in horror) so much as Jun didn’t like hair on his clothing, slobber on his face, and piddle on his shoes.

Aiba decided the best solution was not to give Jun enough time to think about it.

“MatsuJun!” he said as soon as Jun opened the door. “Here you go!”

He dumped the pug into Jun’s arms. Jun looked at its flat, mournful little face.

“You’re sniffling,” Aiba pointed out. “So is he!”

“He’s black, so his hair will match your shirt,” Nino pointed out. His puppy was dangling between his outstretched, mittened hands. “And he’s a loaner; no commitment.”

The pug began sniffing Jun’s buttons with interest.

“This is a terrible idea,” Jun announced, adjusting his hold on the pug and smiling when the puppy gave a great heaving sigh.

 

Sho honestly looked terrifically confused when Nino forced his way into the front door and Jun deposited a cocker spaniel in his arms. He held the dog up, speculating. After a moment, his expression softened, and he cradled the puppy close to his chest. She was so _small_ and cute and innocent!

She peed on him.

Aiba held her one-armed until Sho could change his shirt.

 

Ohno had been locked in a staring contest with his puppy for three minutes. The basset hound’s large, sad looking eyes and long floppy ears made quite the pitying picture, but Ohno was matching it with a round-faced, pouty-lipped expression of increasing dismay.

Nino’s puppy began chewing on Ohno’s puppy’s tail. Their locked gazes broke.

“I win!” Ohno shouted.

“I think you need to reevaluate your life goals,” Jun said dryly. His puppy was sitting primly in his lap, having his ears stroked. He was starting to list to one side as he fell asleep.

Nino seemed extremely pleased with his puppy’s antics—after completing her task of distracting Ohno’s puppy, the shiba ken moved on to bouncing around Aiba’s golden retriever like a tennis ball on crack. The retriever couldn’t keep up and fell over when he got dizzy. Nino and his puppy shouted and barked their victory in unison.

“Go forth, my minion!” Nino said, pointing at Sho. “Conquer my enemies!”

“Why am I an enemy?” Sho asked, extricating his sock from the spaniel’s teeth. He offered the puppy sanctuary in his lap when Nino’s shiba went flying forwards. It was really quite generous, considering she’d already left chew marks on his leather belt.

“Because ‘conquer my coworkers’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it,” Nino explained.

Ohno flopped onto his back on the floor; his basset hound shuffled up and rested his head on Ohno’s chest, looking deep into his eyes.

“I know just how you feel,” Ohno agreed.

“ _Seriously,_ ” Jun said. His pug snorted disdainfully and put a comforting paw on Jun’s knee. Or maybe it was a steadying paw; he was looking a little wobbly and relaxed.

 

Aiba looked around the room at his friends. Ohno had long since fallen asleep, the basset hound spooned in the curl of his body. Both were sprawled across the floor in a haphazard manner. Nino had dozed off sitting up, propped against a corner with his puppy cradled gently in his lap. Sho was passed out on his back; the spaniel had thrown herself across his face, and no one had bothered to move her because her body muffled the sound of his teeth grinding.

Jun was slowly starting to drift off too, his pug’s snores getting louder and more rhythmic as he fell asleep. The puppy was trying to stay upright, but the sleepier he got, the more he listed to the right. Jun had helpfully kept a hand up to prop him up against.

Aiba’s retriever was dead asleep on his back, right at Aiba’s socked feet.

“So aside from systematically destroying Sho’s wardrobe,” Jun murmured softly, low enough not to disturb the others, “what was the point of this?”

Aiba smiled. “Well, everyone’s been a little down lately, so it seemed like fun.”

“That’s it?” Jun asked.

“I know it’s hard for you—for all of us,” Aiba answered. “Sometimes it’s hard to find something to smile about.” He nodded at the pile of friends and puppies, and Jun’s pug gave a particularly loud snore.

“So… you brought us dogs?”

“The best part about holidays is all the love,” Aiba pointed out. “Our families, our friends. But we don’t have a lot of time for those, right? Well, who’s better at unconditional love than _puppies_?”

Jun smiled; his eyes were slowly closing as the rhythm of his puppy’s snores lulled him to sleep too.

“I don’t know,” Jun mumbled just when Aiba thought he’d finally drifted off. “You do a pretty good job with it.”

As Aiba fell asleep too, he tucked his feet more firmly under the warm body of his puppy, and smiled.

Mission accomplished.


End file.
